''The Whore and the Whale'' (''La puta y la ballena'') is a 2004

Hispano The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad. The term commonly applies to countries with a cultural and historical link to Spain and to viceroyalties forme ...

Argentine Argentines (mistakenly translated Argentineans in the past; in Spanish (masculine) or (feminine)) are people identified with the country of Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Argentines, s ...

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

directed by

Luis Puenzo Luis Adalberto Puenzo (born 19 February 1946) is an Argentine film director, producer and screenplay writer. He works mainly in the cinema of Argentina, but has also worked in the United States. Biography Puenzo was born in Buenos Aires in ...

. The film tells the interwoven stories of a Spanish writer whose life goes through various crises and an Argentine photographer who rescued a prostitute from a brothel in the far south of Patagonia but lost her and then died in the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, lin ...

Plot

Vera, a writer in present-day Spain, is commissioned to write a book about Emilio, an Argentine photographer who was killed in the fighting in

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

in 1939. She feels lost, unable to live with her husband and young son and suspecting she is ill. To find out more about Emilio, on an impulse she flies alone to

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

, where she is hospitalised and undergoes a mastectomy. Dying in the bed next to her is a very old woman called Matilde, who is visited by her divorced grandson Ernesto. He takes the recovering Vera to clear out his grandmother's house, where it emerges that the young Matilde had been a whore in the same establishment as Lola, a Spanish chorus girl who had sunk into prostitution in a remote town in Patagonia. Ernesto takes Vera to the town, where his father reveals that it was the photographer Emilio who in 1934 bought Lola's freedom from Suárez, a blind composer of tangos. When the two boarded an aircraft to leave, Lola could not face the future and threw herself out over the sea, falling to her death beside a whale with a harpoon wound. When Vera and Ernesto visit the spot, they see the same whale, now very old, recognisable by the same wound.

Cast

* Aitana Sánchez-Gijón ... Vera *

Leonardo Sbaraglia Leonardo Máximo Sbaraglia (; born 30 June 1970) is an Argentine actor, with extensive credits in both Argentina and Spain. He has also worked in Mexico, and was cast in his first English-language role in '' Red Lights''. Biography Sbaraglia was ...

... Emilio * Mercè Llorens ... Lola * Eduardo Nutkiewitz ... Ernesto (as Edward Nutkiewicz) *

Lydia Lamaison Lydia Lamaison (5 August 1914 – 20 February 2012) was an Argentine actress. She appeared in 47 films and television shows between 1939 and 2012. She starred in the film ''La caída'', which was entered into the 9th Berlin International Fil ...

... Matilde when old *

Belén Blanco Belén is the Spanish name for Bethlehem. Belen, Belén or Beleń may also refer to: Places Argentina *Belén, Catamarca *Belén de Escobar, Buenos Aires Province Bolivia *Belén (Aroma), La Paz Department, Bolivia *Belén (Potosí), Bolivi ...

... Matilde when young *

Pep Munné Pep is energy or high spirits; it may refer to: * Pep band, an ensemble of instrumentalists * Pep, the dog in ''Putt-Putt'' (series) * Neilson Dairy confectionery brand * Pep, New Mexico * Pep, Texas * Pep Cereal, by Kellogg * Pep Comics, b ...

... Jordi * Martín Caloni ... Juanito * Pompeyo Audivert ... El Gringo Orestes *

Miguel Ángel Solá Miguel Ángel Solá Vehil (born May 14, 1950) is an Argentine actor who has made over 60 film appearances in film and TV in Argentina since 1973. Biography Born in Buenos Aires, Solá belongs to the Vehil's dynasty of actors, eight generations ...

... Suárez *

Nicolás Tognola Nicolas or Nicolás may refer to: People Given name * Nicolas (given name) Mononym * Nicolas (footballer, born 1999), Brazilian footballer * Nicolas (footballer, born 2000), Brazilian footballer Surname Nicolas * Dafydd Nicolas (c.1705–17 ...

... El Pibe Pedro *

Natalia Otero Natalia may refer to: People * Natalia (given name), list of people with this name * Natalia (Belgian singer) (born 1980) * Natalia (Greek singer) (born 1983) * Natalia (Spanish singer) (born 1982) Music and film * ''Natalia'' (film), a ...

... Prostitute * Carola Reyna ... Meme *

Óscar Guzmán Oscar or Oskar is a masculine given name of Irish origin. Etymology The name is derived from two elements in Irish: the first, ''os'', means "deer"; the second element, ''car'', means "loving" or "friend", thus "deer-loving one" or "friend of deer" ...

... Urondo *

Nina Krakoff Nina may refer to: * Nina (name), a feminine given name and surname Acronyms *National Iraqi News Agency, a news service in Iraq *Norwegian Institute for Nature Research, on the campus of Norwegian University of Science and Technology *No income, n ...

... Prostitute

External links

* * 2004 films 2000s Spanish-language films 2004 drama films Argentine drama films 2000s Argentine films 2000s Spanish films Spanish drama films {{2000s-Argentina-film-stub